Hot Picks: Spring Films

In collaboration with Camberwell Studios, here are the films we’re most excited about this Spring.

London’s Camberwell Studios are unrivalled in their dedication to the film industry. Their green-screen, voiceover, film and video facilities have helped to create some gorgeously magnificent pieces that we can’t help but be obsessed with. As the movie awards season gets into full swing, we’ve teamed up with Camberwell to select some of the films that we are most excited about this spring.

Manchester by the Sea

Ever since its premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January 2016, “Manchester by the Sea”, a drama film about an uncle that comes back home to look after his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies, has received major critical acclaim, and for good reason. Set in the seaside town of Manchester, in the east coast of America, the Matt Damon-produced and Kenneth Lonergan-directed film explores Lee Chandler’s (played by Casey Affleck) reluctance and struggles to raise his nephew, in what we can only describe as an honest exploration of grief. Affleck shines as the lead, playing a reserved janitor in Quincy, Massachusetts, until news strike of his brother’s death and he is left to take care of his teenage nephew Patrick. Alongside names like Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler and Lucas Hedges, the film has already earned Affleck a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and is a favourite contender for the Oscars.

Manchester by the Sea will premiere in the UK on January 13th.

T2: Trainspotting

20 years after the first “Trainspotting” film, director Danny Boyle is back with a sequel to the 1996 cult british black comedy drama, based on Irvine Welsh’s novel, Porno – titled “T2: Trainspotting”. Heroin addicts Mark Renton (played by the ever-so-brilliant Ewan McGregor), Daniel Murphy (Ewen Bremner) and Simon Williamson return to Scotland in a attempt to make amends, all the while trying to avoid the psychopathic Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle), who has recently been released from prison. As early as 2009, Boyle had declared his wish to make a sequel to the cult classic, which would take place nine years after the original films. While we’ll still have to wait a little while to see it, the soundtrack has been released and it’s sounds GOOD: think retro blast mixed with modern rock. Featuring everything from Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” remix by The Prodigy to new cool kids on the scene Wolf Alice’s “Silk”, this is one of Spring’s most awaited films.

“T2: Trainspotting” will premiere in the UK on January 27th.

A Cure For Wellness

One that Camberwell Studios is particularly buzzing about is “A Cure for Wellness”, an American-German psychological horror thriller film by director Gore Verbinsky, and it gives us both the chills and the creeps. Featuring a young but promising cast by the likes of Mia Goth and Dane DeHaan, “A Cure for Wellness” follows a young executive (DeHaan) as he is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from a mysterious wellness centre in the Swiss Alps, where patients (like Goth) are diagnosed with a curious illness that keeps them there, longing for the cure. Although this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, we have to give it to cinematographer Bojan Bazelli for the hauntingly beautiful visuals and stunning visual effects.

“A Cure For Wellness” premiere worldwide on February 17th.

Moonlight

You’ll find it hard to find a person who hasn’t heard of “Moonlight”. Written and directed by Barry Jenkins and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”, “Moonlight” is a coming-of-age American drama film about Chiron, a kid growing up gay and black in a drug-populated South Central Miami. The film is divided into three chapters—“Little,” “Chiron” and “Black”—the three names used to refer to the same person that we follow from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, as he develops into a less passive and more complex person. With over a hundred awards under its belt, including the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama, “Moonlight” is easily the most anticipated release this Spring. It goes much deeper than race and sexuality; it’s about human nature, empathy and most of all, introspection.

“Moonlight” will be released on UK cinemas on February 17th.

Personal Shopper

“Personal Shopper” is the French psychological thriller film, written and directed by Olivier Assayas, is anything but your typical ghost story. Kristen Stewart, indie film queen as of late, plays Maureen, a fashion PA who’s also a medium attempting to contact her dead twin brother Lewis by haunting the Parisian mansion they both grew up in. Add to this all the strange things that start happening around the house and you have yourself a Friday night. “Personal Shopper” premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May 2016 and guaranteed Olivier Assayas the award for best director. In his second feature with Stewart, following the success of “Clouds of Sils Maria”, Assayas sure knows how to bring out the best in her: Stewart is tremendously calm and self-assured, in what is probably her best performance to date. You will not want to miss it.